John Urry (1946-2016)

John Urry, Liveable Cities Co-Investigator leading the Radical Mobilities Team under the Wellbeing Research Theme, passed away on 18th March.

John’s academic career spanned nearly 5 decades, with early research interests in the sociology of power and revolution. His research delved into many aspects of social theory, but it was his passion for mobilities research that brought him to the Liveable Cities programme. He made a great contribution to engineering through his unique ability to bring social science to the engineering table and encourage engineers to think about social issues as well as their more typical 'engineering' focus. This is a key part of Transforming the Engineering of Cities, which provided an excellent example of his contribution to the wider field. John's legacy lives on in the hands of the students who studied with him and the minds of the co-researchers he inspired to contribute to a better, more societal, future world.